ESG data indicates that IAM will be an extremely active and dynamic area in the near future for many enterprise organizations.

Different types of users require accessibility to a variety of applications and data. Many workers may use corporate sanctioned devices, others may use personal devices (non-managed, non-corporate devices) to perform their jobs. Since security is one of the primary elements of a successful mobility strategy, it’s critical for organizations to decide which business behaviours they want to support.

Keeping a balance between worker accessibility to data and applications supported by necessary security is not easy. Applying too much control could limit user accessibility to needed applications and data—giving users a less-than-satisfactory experience, and limiting their productivity.

Strike the balance between accessibility and security: IT must institute conditional access policies, ensuring identities are locked down with stringent policy enforcement and continual oversight is locked down. This should tackle the increasing complexity of user needs, applications, and devices. And this is just what a number of organizations are planning to do.

Enterprises Identity and Access Management (IAM) To-do Lists: According to Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) research, over the next two years, more than one-third (35%) of organizations plan to monitor user activities more comprehensively throughout the network while 30% want to extend IAM to include device authentication. Others will use federated identity standards to connect to third parties, implement fine-grained (attribute based) access controls, or implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) more extensively. ESG data indicates that IAM will be an extremely active and dynamic in the near future for many enterprise organizations.

Security-related IAM priorities: The organizations have a number of security-related IAM priorities. Consistent with the data described earlier, 35% of those surveyed plan to monitor user activities more comprehensively throughout the network, which will likely lead to identity analytics and user behavioral analytics (UBA) solutions purchasing.

In addition, 30% plan to extend IAM to include device as well as user identity. This IT-focused line of thinking is likely driven by BYOD (bring-your-own-device), mobility, and even Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives, which may require new network security technologies, such as software-defined perimeters (SDP), which authenticate users and devices.

Furthermore, 29% of those surveyed plan to use federated identification standards like SAML to externalize IT applications, while 29% plan on instituting fine-grained (or attribute-based) access controls to limit the attack surface and another 29% seek to replace user name/password authentication with MFA.

Many organizations that implemented IAM solutions prior to creating mobility initiatives should take a hard look at whether or not their existing IAM solutions will be able to adapt to the influx of workforce mobility. And also find if they need to explore alternative IAM platform options more suited to meet their mobility goals over time—without interfering with user experience or compromising security.